With a Probability of Being Seen

The presentation of this exhibition around the figure of Konrad Fischer – the artist, gallerist, collector and curator – allows the museum to study the social, political and economic forces that shape artistic production and its effect upon a broad international community. This exhibition brings together some key issues of MACBA’s current research: the role of artists, not only as creators but also as organisers and viewers, the role of collecting in art history, as well as the influence of series exhibitions such as Prospect in stimulating a response towards avant-garde developments in contemporary artistic production. The works and documentation brought together in this show constitute an investigation into the art-historical agency of an individual that not only introduced unconventional works in the Western contexts of the sixties and seventies, but also marked the artistic movements that later became canonical. The exhibition is divided in three main sections: Konrad Lueg – Artists; Dorothee and Konrad Fischer – Gallery and Archive; and Konrad Fischer – Curator.

In the beginning of the sixties, Konrad Fischer (Düsseldorf 1939–1996) studied painting with Bruno Goller and Karl Otto Götz at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, where he was friends with other artists such as Manfred Kuttner, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. On 29 October 1967, Konrad Fischer opened an exhibition space for contemporary art at 12 Neubrückstrasse, Düsseldorf, in what used to be a gated passageway. Fischer deliberately avoided the term ‘gallery’ and simply called his exhibitions ‘At Konrad Fischer’s’ where he invited the international avant-garde of his generation to Düsseldorf, mainly with the idea of realising site-specific projects for this unusual, singular space.

Fischer also exercised his curatorial ambitions beyond the walls of 12 Neubrückstrasse. When Cologne’s first Art Market, initiated by the Association of Progressive German Art Dealers, took place in the summer of 1968, Konrad Fischer criticised it because only German art dealers were invited to take part. Together with Hans Strelow, Fischer organised the counter-exhibition Prospect 1968 at the Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf and invited only international galleries and their artists. The successive editions of Prospect took place in 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1976, continuing the trend of bringing the international avant-garde to Düsseldorf for a week. In 1969, Fischer also curated the now legendary exhibition Konzeption/Conception. Documentation of Today’s Art Tendencies at the Städtisches Museum in Leverkusen.